tains, as gave them no chance of learning their music, poetry, or stories; and this, together with the religious hatred of the latter for their cruel invaders, will account for the utter ignorance of the old Spanish romancers in whatever relates to the Mahometan nations, although so nearly their own neighbours.

with whatever relates to the Mahometan | tians, whom they chiefly pent up in the moun. nations. Thus with regard to their religion, they constantly represent them as worshipping idols, as paying adoration to a golden image of Mahomet, or else they confound them with the ancient Pagans, &c. And indeed, in all other respects they are so grossly ignorant of the customs, manners, and opinions of every branch of that people, especially of their heroes, champions, and local stories, as almost amounts to a demonstration that they did not imitate them in their songs or romances: for as to dragons, serpents, necromancies, &c., why should these be thought only derived from the Moors in Spain so late as after the eighth century? since notions of this kind appear too familiar to the northern scalds, and enter too deeply into all the northern mythology, to have been transmitted to the unlettered Scandinavians, from so distant a country, at so late a period. If they may not be allowed to have brought these opinions with them in their original migrations from the north of Asia, they will be far more likely to have borrowed them from the Latin poets after the Roman conquests in Gaul, Britain, Germany, &c. For I believe one may challenge the maintainers of this opinion to produce any Arabian poem or history, that could possibly have been then known in Spain, which resembles the old Gothic romances of chivalry half so much as the Metamorphoses of Ovid.

On the other hand, from the local customs and situations, from the known manners and opinions of the Gothic nations in the North, we can easily account for all the ideas of chivalry, and its peculiar fictions.* For, not to mention their distinguished respect for the fair sex, so different from the manners of the Mahometan nations,t their national and domestic history so naturally assumes all the wonders of this species of fabling, that almost all their historical narratives appear regular romances. One might refer, in proof of this, to the old northern Sagas in general: but, to give a particular instance, it will be sufficient to produce the history of King Regner Lodbrog, a celebrated warrior and pirate, who reigned in Denmark about the year 800. This hero signalized his youth by an exploit of gallantry. A Swedish prince had a beautiful daughter, whom he intrusted (probably during some expedition) to the care of one of his officers, assigning a strong castle for their defence. The officer fell in love with his ward, and detained her in his castle, spite of all the efforts of her father. Upon this he published a proclamation, through all the neighbouring countries, that whoever would conquer the ravisher, and rescue the lady, should have her in marriage. Of all that undertook the adventure, Regner alone was so happy as to achieve it; he delivered the fair captive, and obtained her for his prize. It happened that the name of this discourteous officer was Orme, which, in the Islandic language, signifies serpent: wherefore the Scalds, to give the more poetical turn to the adventure, represent the lady as detained from her father by a dreadful dragon, and that Regner slew the monster to set her at liberty. This fabulous account of the rias de Cavallerias: these are evidently imitations of the exploit is given in a poem still extant, which

But we well know that the Scythian nations situate in the countries about Pontus, Colchis, and the Euxine Sea, were in all times infamous for their magic arts; and as Odin and his followers are said to have come precisely from those parts of Asia, we can readily account for the prevalence of fictions of this sort among the Gothic nations of the north, without fetching them from the Moors in Spain, who for many centuries after their irruption lived in a state of such constant hostility with the unsubdued Spanish Chris

which they call peculiarly romances (see Series I. Book iii. No. 16, &c.), have nothing in common with their proper romances (or histories) of chivalry; which they call Histo

French, and show a great ignorance of Moorish manners: and with regard to the Morisco, or song-romances, they do not seem of very great antiquity: few of them appear, from their subjects, much earlier than the reduction of Granada, in the fifteenth century: from which period, I believe, may be plainly traced, among the Spanish writers, a more perfect knowledge of Moorish customs, &c.

is even ascribed to Regner himself, who was

*See Northern Antiquities, passim.
† Ibid.

Saxon Gram. p. 152, 153.-Mallet, North. Antiq. vol. i.

p. 321.

a celebrated poet, and which records all the observed) a multitude of sagas,* or histories valiant achievements of his life.*

? See a specimen in 2d vol. of Northern Antiquities, &c., canebantur, scripsit," o. 29.

ON THE ANCIENT METRICAL ROMANCES.

poetry, being thus the transmitter of facts, | already seen, that, in the preceding century,

when the Normans marched down to the bat-
tle of Hastings, they animated themselves,
by singing (in some popular romance or bal-
lad) the exploits of Roland and the other he-
roes of chivalry.*

would as easily learn to blend them with fic-
tions in France and England, as she is known
to have done in the north, and that much
sooner, for the reasons before assigned.* This
together with the example and influence of
the Normans, will easily account to us why
the first romances of chivalry that appeared
both in England and Francet were composed
in metre as a rude kind of epic songs. In
both kingdoms, tales in verse were usually
sung by minstrels to the harp on festival oc-
casions and doubtless, both nations derived
their relish for this sort of entertainment
from their Teutonic ancestors, without either
of them borrowing it from the other. Among
both people, narrative songs, on true or ficti-
tious subjects, had evidently obtained from
the earliest times. But the professed roman-mances, or with translations from the French,
ces of chivalry seem to have been first com-
posed in France, where also they had their

name.

The Latin tongue, as is observed by an in-
genious writer, ceased to be spoken in
France about the ninth century, and was suc-
ceeded by what was called the romance
tongue, a mixture of the language of the
Franks and bad Latin. As the songs of chi-
valry became the most popular compositions
in that language, they were emphatically
called Romans or Romants; though this
name was at first given to any piece of
poetry. The romances of chivalry can be
traced as early as the eleventh century.? I
know not if the Roman de Brut, written in
1155, was such: But if it was, it was by no
means the first poem of the kind; others
more ancient are still extant. And we have

Saxonicos libros recitare, et maxime carmina Saxonica
memoriter discere, aliis imperare, et solus assidue pro
viribus, studiosissime non desinebat." Ed. 1722, 8vo. p.
43.
*See above, pp. 307-9, &c.

The romances on the subject of Perceval, San Graal,
Lancelot du Lac, Tristan, &c., were among the first that
appeared in the French language in prose, yet these were
originally composed in metre: The Editor has in his pos-
session a very old French MS. in verse, containing L'ancien
Roman de Perceval; and metrical copies of the others may
be found in the libraries of the curious. See a note of
Wanley's in Harl. Catalog. No. 2252, p. 49, &c. Nicolson's
Eng. Hist. Library, 3d Ed. p. 91, &c.-See also a curious
collection of old French romances, with Mr. Wanley's
account of this sort of pieces, in Harl. MSS. Catal. 978, 106.
The Author of the Essay on the Genius of Pope, p. 282.
Ibid. p. 283. Hist. Lit. tom. vi. vii.

Voi Preface aux "Fabliaux et Contes des Poetes Fran-
çois des xii., xiii., xiv., et xv. siecles, &c. Paris, 1756, 3
tom. 12mo.," (a very curious work).

So early as this I cannot trace the songs
of chivalry in English. The most ancient I
have seen is that of Hornechild, described
below, which seems not older than the 12th
century. However, as this rather resembles
the Saxon poetry than the French, it is not
certain that the first English romances were
translated from that language.† We have
seen above, that a propensity to this kind of
fiction prevailed among all the Gothic na-
tions; and though, after the Norman con-
quest, this country abounded with French ro-

there is good reason to believe that the Eng-
lish had original pieces of their own.

The stories of King Arthur and his Round-
Table may be reasonably supposed of the
growth of this Island; both the French and
the Armoricans probably had them from Bri-
tain.? The stories of Guy and Bevis, with
some others, were probably the invention of
English minstrels.|| On the other hand,

* See the account of Taillefer in Essay, and Note. And
see Rapin, Carte, &c.-This song of Roland (whatever it

was) continued for some centuries to be usually sung by

the French in their marches, if we may believe a modern

French writer. "Un jour qu'on chantoit la Chanson de
Roland, comme c'etoit l'usage dans les marches. Il y a long

temps, dit il [John K. of France, who died in 1634], qu'on
ne voit plus de Rolands, parmi les François. On y verroit
encore des Rolands, lui repondit un vieux Capitaine, s'ils
avoient un Charlemagne à leur tête." Vid. tom. iii. p. 202,
des Essaies Hist. sur Paris de M. de Saintefoix, who gives,
as his authority, Boethius in Hist. Scotorum. This author,
however, speaks of the complaint and repartee as made in
an assembly of the states (vocato senatu), and not upon
any march, &c. Vid. Boeth. lib. xv., fol. 327. Ed. Paris,
1574.

† See, on this subject, Notes on the Essay on the Ancient
Minstrels (s. 2), and (GG).

The first romances of chivalry among the Germans were
in metre: they have some very ancient narrative songs
(which they call Lieder), not only on the fabulous heroes
of their own country, but also on those of France and
Britain, as Tristram, Arthur, Gawain, and the Knights
von der Tafelronde. Vid. Goldasti Not. in Eginhart. Vid.
Car. Mag. 4to., 1711, p. 207.

The Welsh have still some very old romances about
King Arthur; but as these are in prose, they are not pro-
bably their first pieces that were composed on that subject.

It is most credible that these stories were originally of
English invention, even if the only pieces now extant should
be found to be translations from the French. What now
pass for the French originals were probably only amplifica-
tions, or enlargements of the old English story. That the

The first prose books of chivalry that appeared in our language were those printed by Caxton ;* at least, these are the first I have been able to discover, and these are all translations from the French. Whereas romances of this kind had been long current in metre, and were so generally admired in the time of Chaucer, that his rhyme of Sir Thopas was evidently written to ridicule and burlesque them.†

He expressly mentions several of them by name in a stanza, which I shall have occasion to quote more than once in this volume.

the English procured translations of such ro- [ tant accession to our stock of ancient English mances as were most current in France: and literature. Many of them exhibit no mean atin the list given at the conclusion of these tempts at epic poetry: and though full of the remarks, many are doubtless of French ori- exploded fictions of chivalry, frequently disginal. play great descriptive and inventive powers in the bards who composed them. They are at least generally equal to any other poetry of the same age. They cannot indeed be put in competition with the nervous productions of so universal and commanding a genius as Chaucer; but they have a simplicity that makes them be read with less interruption, and be more easily understood; and they are far more spirited and entertaining than the tedious allegories of Gower, or the dull and prolix legends of Lydgate. Yet, while so much stress was laid upon the writings of these last, by such as treat of English poetry, the old metrical romances, though far more popular in their times, were hardly known to exist. But it has happened, unluckily, that the antiquaries, who have revived the works of our ancient writers, have been, for the most part, men void of taste and genius, and therefore have always fastidiously rejected the old poetical romances, because founded on fictitious or popular subjects, while they have been careful to grub up every petty fragment of the most dull and insipid rhymist, whose merit it was to deform morality or obscure true history. Should the public encourage the revival of some of those ancient epic songs of chivalry, they would frequently see the rich ore of an Ariosto or a Tasso, though buried it may be among the rubbish and dross of barbarous times.

Men speken of romaunces of pris
Of Horn-Child, and of Ipotis

Of Bevis, and Sire Guy

Of Sire Libeux, and Pleindamour,
But Sire Thopas, he bereth the flour
Of real chevalrie.‡

Most, if not all of these, are still extant in MS. in some or other of our libraries, as I shall show in the conclusion of this slight essay, where I shall give a list of such metrical histories and romances as have fallen under my observation.

As many of these contain a considerable portion of poetic merit, and throw great light on the manners and opinions of former times, it were to be wished that some of the best of them were rescued from oblivion. A judicious collection of them accurately published, with proper illustrations, would be an impor

French romancers borrowed some things from the English, appears from the word Termagant, which they took up from our minstrels, and corrupted into Tervagaunte. See p. 19, and Gloss. "Termagaunt."

* Recuyel of the Hystoryes of Troy, 1471. Godfrye of Boloyne, 1481. Le Morte de Arthur, 1485. The Life of Charlemagne, 1485, &c. As the old minstrelsy wore out,

prose books of chivalry became more admired, especially after the Spanish romances began to be translated into

English, towards the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign: then the most popular metrical romances began to be reduced into proso, as Sir Guy Bevis, &c.

See extract from a letter, written by the Editor of these

volumes, in Mr. Warton's Observations, vol. ii. p. 139.

Canterbury Tales (Tyrwhitt's Edit.) vol. ii. p. 238. -In all the former editions, which I have seen, the name at the end of the 4th line is Blandamoure.

Such a publication would answer many important uses: It would throw new light on the rise and progress of English poetry, the history of which can be but imperfectly understood if these are neglected: It would also serve to illustrate innumerable passages in our ancient classic poets, which, without their help, must be for ever obscure. For, not to mention Chaucer and Spenser, who abound with perpetual allusions to them, I shall give an instance or two from Shakspeare, by way of specimen of their use.

In his play of King John our great dramatic poet alludes to an exploit of Richard I., which the reader will in vain look for in any true history. Faulconbridge says to his mother, act i. sc. 1: